How much does Medicare pay for CPT 49083?

Medicare allowed an average of $99.34 per service and paid $77.53 of that, the balance being the patient's coinsurance and deductible (2024 data). Providers submitted an average of $734.93, which is what they billed rather than what they received — Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of the charge.

What is CPT code 49083?

Drainage of fluid from abdominal cavity using imaging guidance. It was billed 169,039 times to 81,452 Medicare beneficiaries by 3,819 providers in 2024.

Does 49083 pay differently in an office than a hospital?

Yes. The allowed amount averaged $226.20 in an office setting and $95.82 in a facility. The office rate is generally higher because the practice supplies the room, staff and equipment out of that single payment; in a hospital those are billed separately by the facility.

Which specialty bills 49083 most?

Diagnostic Radiology, with 72,057 services from 1,856 clinicians. Next are Physician Assistant, Interventional Radiology, Nurse Practitioner.

CPT 49083

Drainage of fluid from abdominal cavity using imaging guidance

$99.34Medicare-allowed amount per service, averaged across 169,039 services

Providers submitted

$734.93

Asking price, not received

Medicare allowed

$99.34

The fee schedule figure

Medicare paid

$77.53

Balance is patient coinsurance

Providers submitted an average of $734.93 for this code and Medicare allowed $99.34 — 7.4× less. That gap is normal and means nothing on its own: Medicare pays its fee schedule regardless of what is billed, so the submitted figure describes a hospital chargemaster, not a price anyone paid. Of the allowed amount Medicare paid $77.53 (78%); the rest is the patient’s coinsurance and deductible.

Office pays differently to hospital

Office / non-facility: $226.20
Hospital / facility: $95.82

The office rate is higher because the practice supplies the room, staff and equipment out of that payment. In a hospital the facility bills those separately, so the clinician's share is smaller — the total cost to Medicare is usually higher, not lower. 4,570 services were billed in an office setting and 164,469 in a facility.

Services: 169,039
Beneficiaries: 81,452
Providers billing it: 3,819
Total allowed: $16,792,334

What Medicare pays for CPT 49083

Across 169,039 services billed by 3,819 providers to 81,452 beneficiaries, Medicare allowed an average of $99.34 per service. That is 2.1 services per beneficiary, so this is a code patients typically receive more than once. The allowed amount is the figure that matters: it is what Medicare and the patient together owe, set by the fee schedule and adjusted for local practice costs. What a provider chose to submit has no bearing on it.

Who bills 49083

Specialty	Services	Beneficiaries	Avg allowed	Providers
Diagnostic Radiology	72,057	35,632	$105.05	1,856
Physician Assistant	46,067	20,463	$87.36	807
Interventional Radiology	28,345	14,809	$105.55	695
Nurse Practitioner	18,952	8,346	$91.35	340
Internal Medicine	1,443	956	$116.68	52
Hospitalist	532	453	$101.55	29
Gastroenterology	444	205	$95.55	10
Ambulatory Surgical Center	261	56	$443.32	3
General Surgery	179	69	$93.47	3
Pulmonary Disease	176	138	$106.13	7
Vascular Surgery	128	59	$104.76	3
Nephrology	84	26	$105.17	2
Family Practice	73	35	$99.70	2
Radiation Oncology	48	31	$94.89	1
Interventional Cardiology	47	42	$103.45	2

49083 reimbursement by state

Two different numbers. Allowed is what Medicare actually allowed in that state, which includes the local practice-cost adjustment. Standardized strips that geographic adjustment out of the payment, so it is the column to use when comparing states — a difference there reflects how the code was billed, not what it costs to run a practice locally.

State	Services	Allowed	Standardized pmt	Providers
California	17,967	$111.90	$81.36	386
Texas	15,076	$102.02	$79.84	304
Florida	11,470	$100.51	$76.07	267
Pennsylvania	9,989	$95.02	$72.69	203
Illinois	7,234	$99.80	$74.61	178
New York	7,200	$106.83	$77.37	173
Virginia	6,449	$96.09	$74.53	127
North Carolina	5,718	$90.11	$72.77	144
New Jersey	5,379	$115.98	$85.60	117
Ohio	5,248	$89.92	$70.66	127
Arizona	5,023	$96.85	$76.16	93
Michigan	4,774	$95.54	$73.42	115
Indiana	4,313	$90.91	$74.78	96
Maryland	3,863	$101.65	$75.57	76
Tennessee	3,620	$111.63	$93.44	89
Georgia	3,417	$95.93	$75.02	88
Washington	3,371	$97.74	$73.41	79
Missouri	3,274	$94.75	$74.65	84
Wisconsin	3,246	$87.01	$72.20	90
Massachusetts	3,053	$104.03	$76.29	82
South Carolina	2,983	$91.58	$72.44	69
Kentucky	2,880	$90.05	$71.50	58
Oklahoma	2,873	$91.82	$74.74	47
Minnesota	2,810	$93.15	$73.35	80
Louisiana	2,011	$92.16	$73.88	44
Arkansas	1,988	$112.99	$97.36	48
Connecticut	1,930	$98.05	$72.18	46
West Virginia	1,677	$93.20	$74.06	26
Alabama	1,647	$91.97	$75.24	47
Iowa	1,567	$88.77	$73.14	36
Nebraska	1,548	$97.57	$80.72	25
Colorado	1,531	$95.46	$72.94	47
Kansas	1,526	$90.75	$73.39	36
Mississippi	1,473	$91.52	$75.09	30
Delaware	1,065	$97.44	$76.45	20
Utah	1,042	$85.81	$68.00	29
New Hampshire	992	$96.89	$75.49	25
South Dakota	956	$84.33	$67.74	11
Idaho	956	$81.29	$67.19	22
Nevada	876	$96.85	$75.06	27
New Mexico	833	$115.00	$87.96	20
Oregon	689	$100.41	$78.26	21
North Dakota	679	$95.68	$74.26	12
Montana	672	$98.34	$76.24	14
Rhode Island	552	$96.34	$73.12	15
District of Columbia	459	$105.40	$77.94	13
Alaska	289	$120.80	$72.07	7
Vermont	258	$96.13	$73.02	7
Hawaii	187	$98.33	$78.63	7
Maine	173	$91.93	$71.61	5
Wyoming	164	$94.12	$74.84	5
Guam	69	$102.56	$76.91	2

Related codes

49082Drainage of fluid from abdominal cavity$124.64

Billing this code is not the same as earning it

An allowed amount is revenue to a practice, not income to a clinician. It funds staff, premises, equipment and supplies before anyone is paid. What clinicians actually earn is published separately by the Department of Labor, and what industry pays them is published separately again by CMS — this site carries both.

What doctors are paid →·Look up a clinician →·All procedure codes →

Where this comes from. CMS Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners, by Provider and Service, 2024. It covers fee-for-service Original Medicare Part B only — not Medicare Advantage, not Medicaid, and not commercial insurance, which typically pays more for the same code.

How it is averaged. CMS publishes one average per provider per code. Every figure here is re-weighted by the number of services, so a clinician who billed the code 4,000 times counts 4,000 times more than one who billed it twice. CMS also suppresses any provider-code pair with fewer than 11 beneficiaries, so low-volume practice is missing from these totals by design.